1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a nanocomposite, a nanocomposite electrolyte membrane, and a fuel cell using the same, and more particularly, to a sulfonated polysulfone/clay nanocomposite having good thermal resistance and ionic conductivity, a nanocomposite electrolyte membrane including the same, and a fuel cell using the nanocomposite electrolyte membrane.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional fuel cells can be classified into polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) cells, phosphoric acid cells, molten carbonate cells, solid oxide cells, and the like. The operating temperature of fuel cells and constituent materials thereof are dependent on the type of electrolyte used in a cell.
When a nanoscale amount of clay is dispersed in a polymer, excellent properties such as dimensional stability, thermal resistance, mechanical strength, and barrier performance are shown and which the current existing composites do not display. Accordingly, technologies of forming clay into composites using polymers are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publications Nos. 2000-290505 and 2003-277610. However, if composites are formed with clay, monomer purity with high condensation polymerization, monomer reactivity control, dehydration, and temperature control are required and thus, a polymer with high molecular weight is not easily obtained.